review 1: This book is 2/3 political essays, 1/3 essays about art, but they're really all about Wallace Shawn. Not in a solipsistic way, however, but in one that is probing, self-critical, and introspective. The political essays make it clear that he's someone who is a bit uncomfortable with his good fortune and place in the world (bourgeois/white/American/lifelong New Yorker), and he spends a lot of time considering what this means to him as an individual, how to live a moral life in light of the knowledge that most people in the world live in far worse conditions. If you're looking for political insight, these essays are not particularly helpful, and at times veer too closely to what could uncharitably be called "liberal guilt." I do think they could be edifying examples for an ar... moretist who may not be terribly intellectually/artistically engaged with the political, but perhaps wishes to be. Or a politically engaged artist who is simply looking for another perspective. I personally found the last third of the book a bit more interesting, primarily because the areas of art he discusses, theater and poetry, are among those with which I am least familiar. review 2: A disappointing 3 and a half stars for me. It went off like a train and after a dozen or so essays I was ready to give it a five but then I hit the second half of the book, which I found to be largely ineffectual and incoherent – especially the meandering “interview” with Mark Strand.Wallace Shawn is a talented and funny writer and there are some gems in this book, but there are also enough clunkers to pull down the overall score. Still want to read the rest of his plays though, 'The Fever' was fantastic. less
